Where can I put static strings?

Question

Im creating an Windows Phone app and I find myself writing the same MessageBox.Show("Same error message") multiple times. For instance

"Could not connect to server"

This happens when the user do not have internet access.

Is there somewhere I can put it so that I write the text once and fetch the same text all over the place?

I could write a static class, but maybe there is a file for this?

Answer 1

Is there somewhere I can put it so that I write the text once and fetch the same text all over the place?

Yes, there is a special kind of file specifically for this, called strings.resx. It lets you write

MessageBox.Show(strings.ServerNotFound);

instead of

MessageBox.Show("Server not found");

The added benefit (in fact, the intended purpose) of using strings.resx is that your application becomes easily localizable (see answer to this question): adding proper translations and setting the current locale is all it would take to change all strings that your application displays to users with their proper local translations.

Answer 2

If you want it to be multi-lingual in the end I'd go for the Resource.resx file.

If not, you can go for all kinds of solutions:

• keep the string there where they make most sense, in the class where you use them
• store them all together in a dedicated class

Like:

class MyClass 
{
    private static string MyString = "blah";
    // other meaningful stuff
}

Or:

public class MyStaticStrings
{
    public static string MyString = "blah1";
    public static string AnotherString = "blah2";
}

Answer 3

You can create a static variable in the App.xaml.cs page in the App class, so that you can access it all over the application.